In June 2016, when I submitted my first article in the Sports Production Machine to our editor, John Churchman, I had no idea what a ride I was in for.

My goal for the series was to share my experiences, successes, failures, and lessons learned with you to inspire, motivate, and hopefully get a giggle out of you. I never thought of myself as an expert but instead someone who would try it so you don’t have to.

Earlier this year, I decided it was time for me to make a change. I returned me letter of intent with a “no” to my administration followed shortly by a letter of resignation. I didn’t have a plan but I knew I could do something and stay in education. I have since found another position at a “traditional” high school.

This means, I don’t have access to the number of athletics teams that I had at my former position. While sports production will be a huge part of my program, I think it’s time to shut down the production machine series.

That said, I do want to reflect on some of the highlights from the past 2 years. I am very proud of the program we built with the Sports Broadcast Institute and I am more excited about the things my students got to do. I have several students who took what we did in high school and have taken a role in a college program.

I posted this photo a week or so ago on my social media and commented that it makes me prouder than it probably should. The young lady sitting in front of the monitor is working as the technical director for this newscast (Side Note: I don’t recall the student in the chair who is doubled over but I can’t say they enjoyed the program very much…). This photo was taken on the last day of a week long “enrichment camp” where 8th grade students spend 4 days with me working to produce a newscast. The child working as TD for this broadcast told me later that afternoon, “I will be a technical director one day.” At the time, I took it for 8th grade exuberance but she came to me the following year to sign up for my class and told me she was ready to start working toward becoming a TD. A couple of weeks ago she graduated from high school and already has a role in the Georgia State University Athletics broadcasts (where she has worked for the last 16 months). In the first Sports Production Machine, I shared the formula for sports production success: Video students excited to create sports products + sports teams excited to see that someone cares about what they are doing + the natural desire to show off your work = well fueled machine that pays dividends every day.

While the Sports Production Machine gears grind to a halt, my passion for sharing is not. Beginning this month, I am presenting you a look into starting a new program with the “New Kid In School’ series. From what the program will be to what I need to purchase to make it happen, the series will pull back the curtain on building a new program and show you my struggles and successes as I take a program that was “virtual” to the real world. Check out the first article here.